Evaluating the potential of FPGA technology in CPAC products

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the prospect of integrating field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) into CPAC Systems products, which currently primarily utilise microcontroller units (MCUs). The industry CPAC Systems operates in is increasingly moving towards more automation, which requires the handling and fusing of multiple data sources in real-time. To achieve this, FPGAs could be an option. The viability of FPGAs in CPAC Systems products is assessed in the form of a literature study in addition to the development of an FPGA-based sensor fusion platform. The goal of the platform was to investigate the performance-enhancing capabilities of FPGA-based sensor fusion and to evaluate whether a precision accelerometer can be replaced by an array of inexpensive gyroscopes with accelerometers. It was found that FPGA-based sensor fusion offers promising performance benefits, and the literature study concluded that there are products where CPAC Systems could potentially benefit from integrating an FPGA. However, several non-technical aspects, such as engineering capabilities and cost, are likely, but not guaranteed, to make other technologies more favourable.